Tuck Jagadish movie review: Nani's family entertainer is a mixture of cliches

Shiva Nirvana forgoes his usual love triangles for a family drama that fails to take off. While initially it seems like there are parts of the story he’s willing to delve deeper into, the film suffers from wanting to do justice to every relationship and failing to do it for any of them.

Tuck Jagadish (Nani) is the youngest son of the family. He’s loved by his father, step-mother, four siblings and nieces. He’s sensitive towards animals and extra sensitive towards his family, especially the women. Since a young age he has always tucked his shirts in and there’s a reason for it. His brother Bose Babu (Jagapathi Babu) is expected to take over from his father Aadisesh Naidu (Nasser) and look after the family by keeping them together. Except, he has plans of his own. What ensue are very relatable tales of quarrels between siblings over properties and opinions that cannot be unsaid. None of this makes for an interesting watch though.

One cannot help but wonder why the film is titled Tuck Jagadish. Did they just decide upon that title because of Nani’s strange obsession with tucking in his shirts — all the time? It is in no way relevant to the story, at least in the first half of the film. Family emotions oozes in every scene and Nani maintains his brooding tone each time he talks to his family members.Broadly, it is the same story that we have seen on screen multiple times. That of a wealthy zamindar — with 500 acres of land — supposedly doing good to the village, and the zamindar’s son coming from a city and taking up the mantle to ‘reform’ the village. Tuck Jagadish stars Nani, Ritu Varma, Aishwarya Rajesh, Jagapathi Babu, Daniel Balaji, Nasser and a host of other actors.

In the fictional rural village of Bhudevipuram, the residents are violent and land disputes within family members often result in revenge killings. And it becomes Jagadish’s (Nani) responsibility to teach them family values and overcome these disputes. What Jagadish’s father, Aadishesh Naidu (Nasser) was doing as a feudal lord without government authority, Jagadish continues to do from an official position. The reason for Jagadish imparting family values whenever a dispute arises is because his own family is a wreck. The film keeps reiterating that having a joint family is a bigger asset than owning vast amounts of wealth.

In this village, while Aadishesh Naidu is a modern day Gandhian with Vinobha Bhave characteristics, his rival is Veerendra Naidu, another zamindar, played by Daniel Balaji, the evil person who is set to encroach upon lands and turn the village into his private fiefdom. Perhaps, the only saving grace of the film is that it is not outrightly one Naidu family against the other. There is even a twist to the story!

Even if we are to ignore the politics of the film, the plot still has gaping holes in the logic. In "mass” films, the audience are made to overlook certain aspects of reality, but how can one be convinced that a man who was preparing to leave the country, had been writing Group 2 exams all along, in secret? However, the background score by Gopi Sundar, particularly during the action sequences, is impressive.

The film has two female leads — Ritu Varma (Varalakshmi) and Aishwarya Rajesh (Chandra). Aishwarya Rajesh is adequate as Chandra, the naive niece who is determined to marry Jagadish. However, her character is not well-defined. A disgruntled Chandra marries Veerendra Naidu’s brother, as Jagadish does not reciprocate her love. From this point, she is used only as a tool to showcase the masculine side of Jagadish. Ritu Varma is convincing as the Village Revenue Officer, but since the film is from the male lead’s perspective, she too comes into the story as a mere filler.

In this ‘family entertainer,’ sadly none of the actors stand out. The curiosity about why the film was titled Tuck Jagadish was solved in the latter part of the film, albeit with a silly story. Tuck Jagadish promised to be the film that one could enjoy with family right at home on Vinayaka Chavithi. And while it doesn’t live up to that promise, it does have relatable moments that might stay with you. But if you’re tired of same old formulaic films that depend on emotions to carry it through, it is not for you.